Time Eternal (19 page)

Her bare feet padded through the darkened hallway into the kitchen. She immediately saw an outline of someone sitting by the rustic wooden dining table at the back where a wall of the windows led out to a tranquil garden. The pale moonlight streaming through the windows created a shadow around him. But judging from the crackling sensations now running all over her skin, it could only be one person.
Rei.
She should have turned around and left. Any time they were near each other and alone, her body always ended up going crazy for him, and she detested such lack of control on her part. She had been rigorously trained not to have an emotional reaction to anything for any reason during a mission, but just one look, one touch from Rei, and all her well-honed discipline went out of the door.

She hated that someone could rattle her so easily, and she hated that she had no control of her reactions to him. But instead of running away like Elizabeth would have done, Skyla squared her shoulders and walked into the kitchen, aware his eyes were tracking her movements like a medieval dragon waiting for his prey to step into his lair. As soon as she passed the threshold of the kitchen door, excitement began to course through her veins, as if she, too, were anticipating the cat and mouse game, or in this case, the big bad dragon chasing a determined maiden. The playful thought made her tense and smile at the same time. Since when had she thought of herself in such a medieval fashion? It was funny as hell, though.

Managing to keep her voice neutral, she said. “Sorry, didn’t mean to disturb you. I’m just going to heat up some milk and will be out of your way in a few.” Dear Lord, was that her voice? All breathy and seductive.

“Stay.” His voice was velvety smooth. It was meant to put her, his prey, at ease, but all she could feel was the high voltage charge crackling in the air, pulling her to him.
Ah, shit.

It took every ounce of the agent to overcome the hormonal teenager inside her, to steady her hands and open the old-fashioned looking refrigerator—well, at least it was old-fashioned by her twenty-first century standard. She searched the database in her head; all TSCAA agents were taught all relevant historical trivia. The refrigerator was the newest model from Electrolux, the Swedish company that pioneered home refrigeration units in the late 1920s. It had a curved, white, porcelain-covered front and sides with metal door handles, stylish yet homey at the same time.

While she was heating up the milk, she watched Rei out of the corner of her eye. He was still sitting there and had not spoken another word. The milk came to a boil within a few minutes, and she poured it into the mug where she had just dropped a generous dollop of honey.

As she was turning to leave the kitchen, Rei spoke, “Have a seat with me.” His voice was firm and commanding. But he seemed to realize his tone sounded harsh, and he added, “Would you? Please?”

Her body felt compelled to stay. Before she could censor her reaction, her traitorous legs were already moving in his direction. Giving up on fighting the inevitable, she quietly sat down next to him. For a few moments, they both sipped their drinks silently. Now that she was much closer to him, she could see Rei was bare from his waist up, wearing a pair of gray cotton pajama pants.
Argh. Not helping!
The warmth radiating off his body made her want to sidle up next to him like a cat on a cold winter night. The moonlight created shadows across his sculpted shoulders and muscular chest. A chest that was smooth and hairless like the Calvin Klein underwear models on the Times Square billboard. But Rei’s masculinity was pure and raw, not the least bit of contrition. Skyla had to keep swallowing the hot milk to keep her jaw from dropping and her hands from reaching out for bulging biceps, or her tongue from licking down his chest to his washboard abs.

While her mind—and body—were imagining all the things she wanted to do to him, Rei just sat there, at ease, holding a steamy mug of something in his big hands. She and Vivi used to check out a guy’s hands first, assuming the whole thing about big hands and big feet was a good indicator of a guy’s anatomy. As soon as that thought surfaced, she groaned inwardly. Great, now she was picturing the size of his…of his… She slammed that door shut immediately. Instead she asked, “What’re you drinking?”

“Kuvano vino. It’s a common winter drink from my homeland.” He seemed to be pleased that she was curious enough to ask. He smiled at her. “It’s a boiled red wine, with sugar and nutmeg, usually served with a slice of lemon or orange. But Hebert forgot to restock either today.”

Skyla was not prepared for such a devastating smile from him. He was not the most handsome man she had ever seen, but he had by far the most sensual smile. It made her toes curl. She had to modulate her voice so that it would not give away how much he affected her. “That sounds delicious.” She could already feel the warm spiced wine flowing over her tongue.

Rei nudged his mug to her. “Have a try. You used to love it.” A knowing twinkle flashed across his eyes. Daring her to accept another piece of her past, of their past.

She normally would have turned such an offer down. Alcohol and combative missions could, literally, be a lethal combination. But his smug dare did her in. So she picked up his mug and took a sip. Instantly, the sweet floral aroma and the robust, hearty notes from the wine burst through the caverns of her mouth and nose. It was like drinking a piece of warm sunshine. “Hmm, this is good.” She spoke with a contented sigh and took a bigger sip of the ambrosia.

She heard a soft chuckle coming from him, and her body responded in such a feminine way, like a bee to honey, surging in anticipation of the sweetness and pleasure to come. Her DNA remembered them being together in such contentment and happiness, even as her mind had been trying to delay the inevitable acceptance. But with each passing minute, being with Rei and remembering more of her past, her mind was slowly surrendering to her heart and soul. And at this moment, Elizabeth and Skyla were finally in accord with each other. It felt like home, sitting here with Rei in the quiet, dimly lit kitchen. It felt safe. But suddenly, as if her mind were afraid to acknowledge such harmony between them, she felt the need to probe him about the past.

“Tell me what happened to you after you left my father and uncle’s house in Florence.”

Rei looked surprised that she knew about his visit to Elizabeth’s family after she was gone. Not wanting to betray Sloan, she simply said, “The director told me that from Knox and Butch’s fact-finding trip.” Actually, the only things the director had told her were that her father and uncle had lived out their lives quietly after her supposed death from a fire, and that both of them continued working on the time machine. Nothing fruitful had come of it, at least nothing known to the history books. She was relieved to know that her family did not suffer further from her bold defiance of the Medici family. It was a huge relief to know that, even though Skyla had been telling herself the past did not matter anymore, she had no interest in knowing who she was, who Elizabeth was.

Her explanation of how she knew seemed to appease Rei, but his posture remained rigid. There was a long pause. “That’s nothing you need to be concerned about,” he answered in a curt, military tone of voice. “I’ve stood by my bargain with the gods, and I’ve never stopped looking for you.”

Skyla was annoyed by with his elusive answer. She’d finally felt a twang of emotional longing for him, and he chose to give her some bullshit reply. So she baited him on purpose. “Well, I thought you might have married several times already and had kids and grandkids and even great-grandkids too.” Adding more oil to the fire, she batted her eyelashes, feigning innocence. “I definitely would’ve if I were facing eternity all by myself.”

Without any warning, Rei got up and caged her against the table. “You don’t want to taunt me, love.”

Anger flashed across his stormy gray eyes. But she was pissed too, so she pushed her hands against his chest. “How dare—” But before she could utter another word, he yanked her up from the bench and deposited her on the edge of the table. His lips came crushing down on hers. He tasted like the wine they just shared, sweet warm spice. Unlike his kisses before, firm and demanding, these were ferocious and dark. The agent in her knew the kisses were meant to punish her for taunting him a moment ago, but the Elizabeth in her craved his touch and his kiss like Sleeping Beauty, finally woken from her deep sleep. And Elizabeth won. Her body once again softened against his relentless onslaught.

She didn’t know how much time had passed, but when Rei finally let up, both of them were utterly out of breath. His hard body was still caging hers as if he knew her body was screaming, “Take me!” His face was so close to hers that she could see speckles of black and blue in his irises.

“You want to know what I did after I left Florence?” His eyes narrowed with disgust before he straightened up. He paced away from her, standing in front of the windows. He ran both his hands through his jet-black hair. His long shadow was cast on the floor from the moonlight. Such loneliness, such desolation in his voice. “I waged wars for the gods. I went on battlefields recruiting dying soldiers, offering them the same—vengeance in exchange for their souls.” Regret and anger resonated in his bitter voice. “I’ve dealt death to thousands of innocent men, women, and children, all because the gods decreed it.” He stalked up to her, grabbed her shoulders, and said through clenched teeth, “I killed indiscriminately for the gods so that I could find you.”

Skyla already knew all of it. Within twenty-four hours of Rei’s breaking into the Agency, the director had mobilized all her resources to compile a comprehensive file on Rei and his men. They had instigated countless wars, small and large, and in one way or another they had been involved in many major historical incidents, revolutions, assassinations, and social upheavals. All of those had shaped her world in the twenty-first century. Rei’s self-recrimination gave her a thin thread of hope. Instead of showing disgust on her face, her hands cupped his face gently, to soothe him. His regret and anger were like live wires zapping into her palms, burning her, but she refused to let go. “Why did the gods wage war against innocent people? And if you hated it so much, why didn’t you break your pact with the gods?” She tried to keep her voice quiet, with no inflection of any judgment.

He gave her a rueful smile in answer. “Because the gods need to balance good and evil at all times. Because inevitably, people would become too complacent from peace and prosperity and start self-destruction one way or another. Because I had sworn that I’d find you again, no matter what the price was, even if it meant betraying my honor, even if it meant death.”

Rei’s honest, straightforward explanation surprised her. She knew what he had given up to find her, to find Elizabeth, but not until this moment had she realized that the dormant Elizabeth inside her had been stubbornly waiting for him too. Since she had woken up from the coma, she had often felt like an outsider within her close-knit family. And she hadn’t been able to be physically intimate with any man, not even Knox. Now those rather unusual feelings finally made sense. She tiptoed up and pressed a gentle kiss on his mouth. At first, his mouth was harsh and unyielding. Maybe he was surprised by her taking the initiative, or maybe he was angry at what he had to do through the centuries in order to find her. Skyla did not care. Nothing was more important than the need to soothe him. So she pressed on. Her soft body pushed closer against his. Her lips kissed him deeper. Her tongue licked around the seam of his mouth. Her hands grabbed a fistful of his shirt, pulling him yet closer to her. After a few moments, Rei finally relented and kissed her back. It was a tender, slow, simmering, hungry kiss, the kiss of star-crossed lovers who had finally found each other.

She said to him in a low whisper, “I’m glad you’ve found me.” What she didn’t voice was the regret she felt now. She remembered everything, and her heart felt everything that Elizabeth had felt for him…but she still wouldn’t, couldn’t, give up her independence nor her life as Skyla Gray. What he and Elizabeth had before could never exist again. The thought of it made her sad because it was the iron truth. She stepped away from him, from the masculine warmth that Elizabeth once cherished so much. In another low whisper, she said, “Good night,” and walked out of the kitchen.

•●•

Rei stood there, watching Skyla leave the kitchen. Elation and shock roamed through him. She remembered…she kissed him of her own volition. He was about to follow her, to claim what was his, when Sloan stepped into the kitchen. “We’ve found Antonio.”

The next morning, she and Knox met Rei in the war room downstairs. The townhouse was the standard layout of a late nineteenth- or early twentieth-century model, but the first floor, aside from the parlor, had been opened up like an artist’s loft in Soho. Instead of canvases and paintbrushes littered around, an impressive collection of early twentieth-century automatic and hand-to-hand combat weapons were lined up along one side of the wall. In the middle of the open space, several large workbenches were put together. They ran almost from one end of the floor to the other end before the separate kitchen area at the back. Miniature buildings and landscape models were scattered on top of the benches. Skyla recognized the purpose of those configurations. They were the equivalent of computer simulations in her time. TSCAA regularly used them for pre-mission strategy sessions. She let out a low whistle. Impressive.

Heavy boot-stomping came through the front door. Knox tensed up immediately and moved slightly in front of her before Sloan stepped in, followed by his team. Sloan gave them a cursory glance and then spoke to Rei directly.

“We’ve found something at the dock. Some sort of mechanical residue similar to the time machine Giovanni built,” Sloan reported.

Skyla’s ears perked up. Her uncle and the time machine…this could not be good news.

“You sure?”

Sloan simply looked at her as if she was an annoying buzz and immediately turned back to Rei. Obviously, he wouldn’t answer her question without Rei’s consent.
Arrogant ass!